Three teams with innovative and vastly different approaches have been selected to take on the 2024 Disaster Challenge’s real-world wicked problem at the final on 4 October 2024.
Selected from a strong field of entries, the teams will pitch their ideas to a panel of judges made up of experts from the natural hazards, emergency management and resilience sectors at an event hosted by the Department of Fire and Emergency Services at the Bushfire Centre of Excellence in Mandurah, Western Australia.
Now in its third year, the Disaster Challenge posed the wicked problem: ‘In a world where trust is both vital and fragile, how can we build and sustain trust across our whole society to drive the collective and coordinated actions that are fundamental to reducing the risks and impacts of disasters, and strengthening the safety, sustainability and resilience of all Australians?’
Registrations are now open for the final event. Find out more about the event and how to register here.
Meet the three teams and their innovative solutions to this year’s wicked problem:
- Home Insurance Risk Reduction Options - Natalie Oliver (early career researcher, Queensland Fire Department), Alexandra Gunn (postgraduate student, La Trobe University and Queensland Fire Department), Lillian Norris (postgraduate student, University of Queensland)
- Building trust and resilience: Improving community disaster response through personalised messaging - Craig Ridep-Morris (postgraduate student, James Cook University), Alison Sheaves (postgraduate student, James Cook University), Madison Green (postgraduate student, James Cook University)
- Project OutHeat - Hannah Waldron (undergraduate student, University of Western Australia), Curie Thota (postgraduate student, University of Western Australia), Anika Hill (undergraduate student, Murdoch University)
Competition between entries, ideas and approaches was fiercely contested this year, with the judging panel indicating the difficulty in selecting only three finalists. Two teams were highly commended.
More about the finalists
Home Insurance Risk Reduction Options Home Insurance Risk Reduction Options (HIRRO) empowers homeowners to reduce risk and increase resilience through a range of practical home improvements that lead to real and transparent reductions in insurance premiums while also building trust. Through the integration of risk data and AI, HIRRO will inform homeowners about the most beneficial, risk-reducing improvements they can make to their homes, leading to insurance premium reductions in an accessible and transparent process and increasing trust.
Building trust and resilience: Improving community disaster response through effective message dissemination Through the development of a community-centred, human behaviour theory-informed disaster information dissemination protocol, trust in emergency and disaster management will be improved and community disaster-resilience built. Optimising the advertisement and dissemination of existing information resources, the protocol will address critical elements that improve understanding and prompt protective actions, as well as providing community-accessible disaster information.
Project OutHeat Using a two-pronged approach, Project OutHeat fosters community trust and action during heatwaves. Nag-Your-Neighbours encourages community members to check in on those around them during heatwaves, while Hydraid delivers mobile heatwave relief in metropolitan and regional Australia, providing essential aid to those without support/resources during extreme weather.
Highly commended teams
- Random Acts of Resilience - Douglas Radford (postgraduate student, University of Adelaide), Gabrielle Miller (postgraduate student, University of Melbourne), Caitlin Symon (early career researcher, University of Melbourne)
Random Acts of Resilience is a funding program that would seek to empower low-cost projects that have high potential for tackling issues that community members or emergency management personnel prioritise. Inspired by micro-financing initiatives and Snowden’s Cynefin framework, Random Acts of Resilience acknowledges disaster risk and resilience as a complex problem that those closest to the ground are best placed to solve.
- Building trust and bridging cultural gaps: innovating bushfire response and recovery through effective communication and Indigenous collaboration in rural areas – lessons from the Black Summer 2019-2020 - Evelyn Liew (postgraduate student, Griffith University), Dr Irfaan Peerun (early career researcher, Griffith University)
This proposal envisions a transformative approach to bushfire response, driven by the lessons of Black Summer 2019-2020. By weaving trust, cultural sensitivity and dynamic collaboration with Indigenous communities, it aims to revolutionise a more inclusive, and effective disaster management framework to overcome disaster crisis’s, uniting communities and fortifying resilience
What’s next?
The three finalist teams will now receive mentoring and other support from Natural Hazards Research Australia and its national steering group of resilience, disaster management and academic experts to take their idea to the next level.
The Disaster Challenge Final will be a public event, so sign up to our newsletter or keep your eyes peeled on the Natural Hazards Research Australia social media platforms for more information about registration.
The Disaster Challenge
In its third year, the Disaster Challenge asks early career researchers, postgraduate and undergraduate students around Australia to come up with new ideas, new thinking and new research that addresses some of the country’s most urgent and wicked natural hazard questions.